• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing

Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • ☀️ Web3 Conference
  • 🔎 Find Help
  • ⚙️ Tools
  • 🗓️ Events
  • 🎤 Shows
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Crypto Business Podcast
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • Sponsor
    • Podcast Sponsorship
    • Email Sponsorship
    • Event Sponsorship
  • About
    • Society
    • Articles & Videos
      • Articles
        • Web3
        • How To
          • Instagram Marketing
          • Facebook Ads
          • Facebook Marketing
          • YouTube Marketing
          • YouTube Ads
          • LinkedIn Marketing
          • TikTok Marketing
          • Clubhouse
        • View Points
        • Expert Interviews
        • Tools
      • Video Tutorials
        • Instagram Marketing
        • Instagram Ads
        • Facebook Marketing
        • Facebook Ads
        • LinkedIn Ads
        • TikTok
        • Clubhouse
  • Search
  • How Brands Can Leverage Holidays for Their Social Campaigns

    by Ekaterina Walter / January 8, 2014

    social media how to Do you plan marketing campaigns around major holidays?

    Do you need ideas for your 2014 holiday social media marketing?

    From Valentines Day to Easter and beyond, holidays are an important time for brands to engage customers and promote products in new and exciting ways.

    And holiday-themed storytelling is an especially great way to build and cultivate a growing and engaged audience.

    Here are four ways brands use social media to create and promote holiday campaigns throughout the year.

    #1: Show the Fun Side of Your Brand With a Holiday Vine

    Because Vines show up in Twitter’s main feed, they’re eye-catching and easy for people to share across Twitter and Facebook. Marketers have been quick to adopt Twitter’s 6-second video looping app to show a lighter and more creative side to the brands they promote.

    Home improvement store Lowe’s used Vine to animate everyday household tools to look like bursting fireworks and wish their followers a happy 4th of July.

    lowes-holiday-vine
    Lowe’s has used Vine in a number of ways to reach their followers.

    Use stop-motion video to bring your products to life in a quirky animation and send your followers a holiday message. It’s a simple and clever way to draw attention to your brand and celebrate a holiday.

    #2: Promote a Dedicated Microsite Campaign With Twitter

    Microsites are a great idea if you want to set up a central hub for a competition or event, but keep it separate from your main site. Once the event is done, you can easily close it down or remove links and then reinstate it later with minimal hassle.

    But how do you let everyone know about your campaign if it’s tucked away on its own? Integrate Twitter functionality!

    Cosmetics and beauty brand Sephora‘s Sephora Claus campaign proved hugely successful. On the microsite, fans were asked to wish for a Sephora beauty product and connect to their Twitter account to complete the wish. One wish was granted each day for 30 days.

    All the wishes are collected on the microsite in the form of clickable gift tags, which look really stylish and give a fun visual twist to the page.

    Requiring wishers to connect their Twitter accounts meant that the ‘wishes’ were visible across social media, which boosted engagement—a staggering 50,000 tweets were sent overall.

    No Longer Just for Tech and Finance Nerds...

    Crypto

    Originally just for people who understood the jargon, Web3 is now the business playground for entrepreneurs, creators, and marketers.

    Whether you’re a newbie or have already gotten your feet wet, you can learn the ins and outs of NFTs, DAOs, social tokens, and more on the newest show hosted by Michael Stelzner—the Crypto Business podcast.

    Follow the show on your favorite podcast platform to find out how to make Web3 work for your business.

    FOLLOW THE SHOW
    sephora-claus
    Sephora made user-generated tweets an integral part of their latest holiday campaign.

    Build social media functionality into the holiday campaign on your microsite to ensure visibility.

    #3: Add Facebook Games to Your Annual Product Campaigns

    It can be challenging to encourage engagement that makes your campaign visible to people outside your fan base. Adding a gaming component to your campaign is a surefire way to bring it to people’s attention who’ll spread your message to wider networks as they play.

    Every year, Cadbury’s Creme Eggs are sold for a limited time (January 1 until Easter Sunday) in the run-up to Easter, and every year Cadbury comes up with a fun campaign to boost sales in this limited timeframe.

    The Creme Eggs are so popular they even have their own Facebook page with an incredible 2.6 million likes, which shows how successful Cadbury has been at increasing online engagement.

    Launch Social Projects Faster and Easier

    FindHelp Marketplace

    Looking for a content creator, campaign manager, or strategist for your social channels or a special project?

    Find the right expert for even the most complicated project or campaign in just a few clicks with our new FindHelp marketplace. You'll have more time to focus on other areas of your business without sacrificing your social presence. Browse highly qualified Facebook and Instagram experts today.

    FIND HELP TODAY

    In 2012, Cadbury capitalized on their massive fan base and used their status as one of the London Olympic Games sponsors to introduce the Goo Games as part of their annual Creme Egg marketing.

    Based on real Olympic events, fans could choose from several games including ‘Pole Yolk,’ ‘Goodles’ and ‘Triple Bump,’ and were rewarded with virtual medals and real-world prizes. Participants in any of the Goo Games had to like the Facebook page before playing, which helped to widen the campaign’s reach and generate huge levels of sustained engagement on the page.

    cadbury-goo-games
    Goo Games created sustained engagement for Cadbury’s Facebook Easter campaign.

    Visitors to the Cadbury site and Facebook page could also participate by sending in a photo of themselves “getting the goo out” of their own eggs by splattering them in original and funny ways.

    Combine user-generated marketing with a high-engagement activity like an online game for maximum reach and visibility.

    #4: Get the Most Out of Image Sharing With Pinterest Boards

    Although brands still produce traditional TV and print ads, some of the biggest brands are putting their most creative input into their digital content. Image-sharing sites like Pinterest are becoming the focus of some exciting new targeted campaigns that drive engagement, as well as website traffic and online sales.

    When Target partnered with Pinterest last spring to pilot Rich Pins—pins that work like a catalog with prices and other product information—it resulted in a 70% increase in visits to Target.com from Pinterest.

    This Thanksgiving, Target teamed up with one of the most sought-after event producers in the world, David Stark, to offer guests a first-of-its-kind party-planning resource on Pinterest with a board called Best.Party.Ever.

    The Best.Party.Ever. board features David Stark’s “secrets to creating the perfect holiday party, from DIYs to recipes to unique decorating ideas,” as well as rich pins that make shopping easy and videos that show tips and ideas.

    target-best-party-ever-campaign
    Target’s Best.Party.Ever. campaign used rich pins to drive holiday engagement on Pinterest.

    Build up your campaign’s secret board through the year. Unveil it by making it public in the lead-up to a holiday and remember to move your current holiday-themed boards to the top of your Pinterest profile to increase engagement at key times of the year.

    Conclusion

    Forward-looking brands are putting social media at the center of their holiday marketing campaigns and taking advantage of themed campaigns to build up long-term loyalty.

    When you use the tips in this article to make the most of frequent, relevant campaigns, you’ll benefit from increased engagement and a growing audience as well as enjoy a greater online presence, increased sales and website traffic.

    What do you think? Are you using any of these tactics to get noticed? Which will you try in the coming year? Please leave your questions and comments in the box below.

    Curious about NFTs, DAOs, and Web3?

    Crypto

    Follow the Crypto Business podcast to find out how NFTs, social tokens, DAOs (and so much more) will affect your business in the near future.

    Every Friday, host Michael Stelzner interviews leading industry experts about what works right now in Web3 and what to expect in the future, so you can prepare your business for the shift, even if you're a total newbie.

    FOLLOW THE SHOW

    Tags: Social Media Strategy

    About the authorEkaterina Walter

    Ekaterina Walter is a cofounder and CMO of Branderati and a bestselling author of Think Like Zuck and The Power of Visual Storytelling .
    Other posts by Ekaterina Walter Âť

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (39 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Facebook Ads

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Find out how thousands of marketers plan to change their social marketing activities in our 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. This 39-page report reveals what marketers have planned for their organic social activities, video marketing, social ads, and more. Get this free report now and never miss another great article from Social Media Examiner.

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2022 Social Media ExaminerÂŽ
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • Write for us…
    • RSS
    • Accessibility